By Charles Barnard
Undoubtedly, love protects. Therefor a loving mindset is a mindset that protects. The imagery of a scared child running into the arms of a mother or father is a beautiful representation of the natural response of a scared child and their parent. The child seeks protection by the parent and the parent opens their arms to embrace and protect their child. That is the essence of love on many levels. It is most definitely a characteristic of one who has a love mindset.
The idea that love protects goes beyond the parent-child relationship. We see it acted out by everyday heroes. There is the story of Emily Marshall a 19-month-old who lived in a neighborhood near railroad tracks and had wandered away from her mother in the yard. Train conductor Robert Mohr and engineer Rod Lindley were on a train and had slowed to 24 mph as they sliced through south Lafayette, Indiana on the tracks that passed less than a block from Emily Marshall’s home.
As he stared down the tracks, Mohr spotted what Lindley thought might be a dog, so he blew the horn to scare it off. When it didn’t move, he blew the horn again. He blew it again. He blew it again. Finally, Mohr saw “a wide-eyed face, a tiny ponytail sticking straight up.”
Upon recognizing that what they had seen on the tracks was a baby, they went into action. They didn’t think. They acted. This is how it was described in The Seattle Times, “Everything happened so fast. It all just happened so fast. Lindley hit the brakes, knowing full well he could never stop in time. Mohr bolted out the side door of the cab. Clinging to the outside of the moving train, he sidestepped along a ledge that runs the length of the locomotive. Lindley kept blowing the whistle. Blowing and praying. The train slowed to about 10 mph as Mohr scrambled down stairs at the front of the locomotive and lowered himself to the snowguard at the very tip of the train. Emily rolled off the rail and onto the rock-covered edge of the tracks. Better, Mohr thought, but still in the train’s path. As the horn blared and the brakes screamed, the distance kept closing. The conductor stretched his 5-foot-9 frame, extending his right leg to kick the girl out of the train’s path. He knew there would be only one chance. Now! He felt his foot strike the baby as the locomotive swept by. Then he jumped off, uncertain whether his plan had worked. As he raced toward the baby, he could see her face and light-brown hair highlighted in blood. But she was moving and he could hear her crying.”
Mohr picked up the child in his arms and yelled to a neighbor to call an ambulance. Patrolman Randy Hale of the Lafayette Police Department responded to the call as it came across the police radio. In no time, he was at the scene fearing the worst, and when he spotted walking with the child in his arms he noticed blood all over the conductor’s shirt. He also noticed “the best sound I’ve ever heard,” a crying child. When the paramedics arrived to take Emily to the hospital, she clung to Mohr’s shirt and didn’t want to let go.
Emily had 20 stiches to close up the cuts on her head, but “by Thursday afternoon, Emily was playing in the sunshine, proudly showing off her ‘boo boo’ to anyone who cared to look. All I want to do with this story in focus on the action of Robert Mohr. Upon seeing a child in danger he acted to protect her. He acted out of love. Yes, love, for love protects.[1]
Does “love protects” only refer to protecting life and limb? If you truly love yourself or love family, wouldn’t you be concerned with protecting your or their good name or honor? Granted, we certainly in modern times don’t place the same value on our good names or our honor as they did in bygone eras where you would be willing to lay down your life in a duel to protect what you viewed as your honor or the honor of your beloved. The classic imagery of the old west duel in the movie High Noon with Gary Cooper is a perfect example. In that story, the good guy can’t run from a gun fight with the bad guy because it would be dishonorable. He has too much love for himself and his good name to run away. While we may view that classic western scenario differently today, the idea that love protects and you protect your reputation or try to protect the honor and reputation of those you love has not changed. I am not sure we have as many people who demonstrate that idea that love protects in this context, but the idea that love protects your name and reputation has not changed.
While I believe we see heroes everyday who exemplify the idea that love protects by protecting the life and limb of others, and in the case of our military are also trying to protect the ideals and principles that our country purportedly represent and that they presumably love, I think we are seeing a serious decline in those who truly love themselves and we see that in an utter disregard for their own reputation. There are so many news story today about people, especially those in leadership positions, who seem to have no shame. Shame is supposed to be an emotion originating in this idea of not protecting your good name. In other words, when there is no shame there is an indication that people have lost connection with the very notion that love protects, especially in the context of protecting your good name and honor.
[1] Huppke, Rex W. The Seattle Times, The Seattle Times Company, 17 May 1998, archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19980517.
https://growthmimindsettrainingacademy.com/Success-Institutes-Love-Protects
